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Cocktail Pairing Dinner Tax Day April 15, 2010

Who better than Oregon to start a distillery for Vodka and Gin made with organic goods? We’re pairing Chris’ food with the spirits of ORGANIC NATION SPIRITS on April 15th so you can soothe your stressed nerves after you drop your taxes at the post office. Organic Nation Spirits was founded in 2006 by Diane Paulson and David Eliason in Ashland Oregon.


5 courses, with options available with each course to include veggies, fish and more hearty fare at a moderate price tag. We’re doing this in a casual fashion. Melodie Buell from Organic Nation Spirits will be on hand to circulate, answer questions and charm, but formal presentations will be kept to a minimum.

Reservations are required.
Call 503.222.GILT (4458)

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Valentine's Day in a Romantic, Swanky Setting

Ah, yes... Valentine's Day is once again upon us. Our chef has come up with a delicious menu being served this weekend. It's a four course menu with many options. Click here to see the menu. Today I'll be telling you what I am picking for each course...



For the first course I'm choosing the Wild Mushroom Panna Cotta with winter vegetable puree and their greens, roasted garlic, and sautéed mushrooms to finish. A savory panna cotta sounds like the perfect beginning to a fine meal. A nice, light way to warm up the palette.

Next I'll be having the Blood Orange and Beets with arugula, goat cheese parcel, pistachios, and saba-pinot noir reduction. As per my previous post you know how much I love the orange and beet combo, so naturally I couldn't resist this salad.

For the entree I'm going to try something new: Butter poached Monkfish with wild mushroom raviolo, sugar snap peas, chervil, and lobster sauce. I've never had monkfish before, but I figure that this is a perfect chance to try it because it will be prepared in the capable hands of the chef and it is poached in butter. I'd probably like just about anything if it had been poached in butter, especially if it is topped off with a lobster sauce!

And for dessert the Chocolate Indulgence for Two:
with a warm chocolate cake, chocolate pot de crème, chocolate covered mint leaves and strawberry sorbet. Need I say more?

Have you made your reservation yet?

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A Tasty New Salad Downtown

We have some new menu items at Gilt, including the delicious salad pictured above. I popped in a couple of weeks ago and sampled this gorgeous salad. It consists of blood oranges and beets with baguette crisps, dill, arugula, chili oil, and crushed pistachios. It is a really wonderful blend of flavors. The beets tell you that it is still winter and the oranges really brighten it up. The addition of the dill brings it to a whole other level. I ordered this salad feeling like I hadn't eaten anything fresh and light all day and it remedied that feeling immediately!

Stay tuned over the next few weeks as I'll be talking more about the new entrees and appetizers on the menu!

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Happy Hour in Portland's Pearl

Happy New Year! Since we are all still slightly recovering from the decadence of the holiday season, I thought I'd focus on our Happy Hour selections today. The smaller Happy Hour portions are guaranteed not to make you immediately blow your New Year's Resolutions.Stay an hour, enjoy some food and then be on your way... simple and easy!

Happy Hour nibbles:

House made potato chips with smoked sea salt
and crème frâiché

White bean purée with baguette

“Scrambled eggs and toast”
slow cooked eggs, with crème frâiché,
chives and brioche toast fingers

Warmed olives with herbs

Toasted marcona almonds with fleur de sel

House made Bacon
straight up
(its just that good)

Side of fries with garlicky aioli

House made pork rinds

Ceasar salad with foccacia croutons

Plain ol’ greens salad with shaved parmesan and
vegetables, simple vinaigrette, fleur de sel, herbs

Tuscan kale chips with preserved lemon
yoghurt sauce and chili flake

Stewed pork shoulder with telaggio & red onion
on foccacia

Pizza of the day- house made pizza dough with
fresh topping chose daily (15 min approx bake time)

Beef slider with red onion, lettuce, cheese served
with house cut French fries

Happy Hour beverages:

Stella Artois Lager

Wine - Glass of whatever we have lots of.
(We could make something up here, but its
better to just tell the truth.)
Changes often be sure to ask us.

Moscow Mule- Vodka, ginger beer, lime,
fresh ginger zest & a spritz of soda -
in a traditional copper cup

Fresh Appletini - House infused apple vodka,
triple sec & fresh lemon & lime -
up with apple slice

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Holiday Dinner in the Pearl

This is what I had for dinner last night. Doesn't it look tasty? Roasted goose breast with porcini dumplings, goose fat roasted greens with wild mushroom cream sauce and lingonberry jam... Yum! Honestly I can't figure out which part was my favorite. I really love greens and greens roasted with goose fat are amazing. The porcini dumplings are heavenly dipped in the mushroom cream sauce. I'd never had goose before, but figured if I was ever going to try it now was the time. No one but Gilt was going to prepare the goose with such expert hands. It was rich, almost like steak; the steakiest poultry I've ever had. The flavor circle was completed when each bite was accompanied with a little bit of the lingonberry jam. If this sounds enticing to you I urge you to get to Gilt soon. This is part of a special Christmas Goose Dinner running now through the 30th of this month. All items are available a la cart or prix fixe for all four courses. :

First
Goose and duck terrine with pistachios, roasted chestnuts, buttered potatoes, greens beans and truffle jus
Second
Warm goose confit and giblet salad with walnuts, frisee, pears, oil cured olives and walnut dressing
Third
Roasted goose breast with porcini dumplings, goose fat roasted greens with wild mushroom cream sauce and lingonberry jam
Fourth
A choice from our lovely dessert menu

A nice wine pairing with the goose breast and dumplings would be a Côtes du Rhône, such as a glass of '06 Chapoutier “Belleruche”.

And since we're talking Christmas here, how about a wintery cocktail? Our seasonal right now is the Non-Coffee, Coffee drink - Chai liquer, Kahlua & brandy
with whip cream - hot in a snifter $7.5 w/coffee $8.5.

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Perfect Appetizers and Chardonnay in Downtown Portland

(are you enjoying my iphone photos yet?)

I was reading this week's Mercury review of Gilt Club and was reminded of my other favorite appetizer: Ricotta Fritters! According to Patrick Alan Coleman on the topic of our ricotta fritters, "The fine dining answer to fried mozzarella sticks are expertly prepared, and it's difficult to imagine how one gets ricotta to behave this way. The experience is like biting into a perfectly toasted marshmallow—thinly crisped on the outside and oozy within—the difference being the savor and slightly grainy texture of the ricotta. The little ricotta balls have just enough structural integrity to hold shape while being dragged through an accompanying chili sauce, which adds needed zing to the muted ricotta cheese." I really couldn't have said it any better myself. You must come in and try these! (see last week's post for a discussion of my first favorite appetizer: the humble-yet-perfect focaccia bread.)

Since it we are supposed to get a few snow flurries tonight I thought it appropriate to talk about a white wine, specifically the '05 Ramey Chardonnay. We have so many things on the menu that pair wonderfully with this deep, bold, flavorful white. The butter on the palate really goes nicely with oven roasted cod with saffron cream, slow cooked leeks, basil, shaved fennel, Yukon gold potatoes and mussels, for example. It is a good oak-y wine with some substance.

And finally, a discussion on scotch vs whiskey vs bourbon.
Whiskey: a common liquor produced all over the world, with each region doing so it its own way.
Scotch: the distinctive national whiskey of Scotland. Single Malt scotches are made entirely from malted barley and are the product of one single distillery. Blended scotch whiskeys are a mixture of several different malt whiskeys and grain alcohol, usually aged in older previously used barrels and take longer to mature, ie 10-30 years on average.
Bourbon: a distinctive product of the US distilled in Bourbon County, KY. It is made from a fermented mash of at least 51% corn. Must be aged in new oak 'charred' barrels for at least two years. The charred oak enables it to reach maturity faster than scotch, which uses old barrels. The bourbon is fuller bodies, owing much of it's taste to the corn and rye grains used in it's production.

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